1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates generally to microprocessors. More specifically, the present application provides for estimating power consumption within a multi-core microprocessor chip.
2. Description of the Related Art
As multi-core processors become more commonplace, power management issues become more important. Multi-core processors refer to a central processing unit that includes multiple complete execution cores per physical processor. The central processing unit combines multiple processors and their caches and cache controllers onto a single integrated circuit (silicon chip). Multi-core processors are well suited for multi-tasking environments because there are multiple complete execution cores instead of one, each with an independent interface to the front side bus. Since each core has its own cache, the operating system has sufficient resources to handle most compute intensive tasks in parallel.
Effective power management in a microprocessor requires measurement or approximation of power. However, the measurement of real, calibrated power consumption in hardware is a difficult and complex task which might involve stalling the processor for proper calibration.